


I’ll never be more than a wolf at your door

by Natasi (SwordDraconis113)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 18:45:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6869047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SwordDraconis113/pseuds/Natasi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the Enchanted Forest, Regina decides to even the battlefield by borrowing Snow's greatest asset. Red.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I’ll never be more than a wolf at your door

**Author's Note:**

> Kinda a lot inspired by thegirl20's short fic with Ruby being a pet wolf to Cruella, and kinda always thought that if Regina could have used Cruella to capture Red, she would have in that big war, since Ruby is like...the Enchanted Forest's version of a tank. Not to mention that Lana always talks about the Evil Queen and her Pet Wolf and somuchyes.
> 
> I admit, I am tempted to write a longfic, but for now this will do.

A lone wolf creeps through the woods, ears pricking for any sound. There is nothing in the woods, so far, but her nose twitches as the night air rolls in, smelling _something_.

Snow had sent her this way, hearing rumours that Regina would attempt to flank them from the northern woods side. This way, she had explained, Red could pick off any scouts and run back and warn them before they hit.

But the woods are quiet. Nothing is moving, as if the trees are all holding their breath, awaiting for it to happen. For now, there’s only Red’s paws, hitting earth and roots as she prowls through the trees. Even the wind is still. It doesn’t feel right.

A shrubbery moves to her right and Red drops low, ears pricked and listening as footstep vibrate through the ground, towards her. There’s another behind her. Her tail flicks, and she pounces on the shrubbery as six soldiers from Regina’s army run towards her, their swords raised and shields close in hand.

Red turns, and rams herself into the closet, by the shrubbery. His sword slices at her back leg leaving a shallow wound. Growling low, she snaps and bites down on his arm, tearing between the armguard, through to muscle, then bone. She rips the arm from him and spits it to the ground, staring at the man as he collapses in pain, screaming.

Good.

Five remain. As a group, they encircle her in an attack. A shield strikes her head and Red jumps away, swiftly through the trees, hitting wood, then ground, then wood again as turns back to them, pouncing from the shadows. One soldier drops his sword, crying out as she tears his head from neck and throws it to the dirt. 

She grabs a third, a woman, and snaps her jaws over her torso. She feels the bones break beneath her teeth before she drops the woman to the ground as the other three remain standing still, waiting to attack. They’re too far away to lunge.

Red settles and waits, staring at them to make their move. Her tail flicks and she stares out, golden eyes piercing into them as she waits. 

She’s hungry, she’s so hungry, she’s…

A sharp scent drifts over nose. Red flicks her head, moving away from it, but it pours into her snout and mouth, down her lungs and she inhales sharply, yelping as she backs into a tree and paws at the ground to push away. _Wrong, wrong, wrong…_

Her body settles, tail dropping as her ears droop, a low whine in her voice. The soldier’s relax, and her mistress steps towards them, shooing them away with her hand. “Go back to Regina, tell her its done,” she drawls, then turns to Red. “Come.”

Red whines, standing up to walk over to her mistress. Black nails point to the ground and Red lies down, staring up at her mistress.

“You are quite magnificent,” her mistress says, petting her coat. “Regina wasn’t sure it would work, but I knew better, darling.”

The hand is soft and it draws down her head, her neck and back. Her mistress is good to her, her mistress needs her.

“If you’re very good for mummy, I might keep you once this is all over.”

 _Yes_ , Red decides, her tail flicking, yes, that’s what she wants. She wants to be good, to be kept. 

“Good girl. Now why don’t you go back to your old master and take care of that little problem, hmm? After all, she’ll want to keep you from me, and we can’t have that.”

No, Red thinks, we can’t have that. 

She stands up and walks through the trees, her mouth salivating. Her steps quicken, her body lengthens and draws as she breaks out into a run. She’s at ease for the first time since she started this war. The full moon hangs in the sky, bright and warm on her back as she sprints through the woods, into the open land where the two armies have met.

She tears through Snow’s army, picking off thirty men and women, before she makes it to Snow, knocking her from her horse and pinning her to the earth. Snow will want to take her away from her mistress, Snow will want to kill her. She bares her teeth.

“Red? _Red_ , what are you doing?”

James strikes her, enough to stun, and Red flicks her head to him, snarling. How dare he?

“What the hell is going on?” he demands and Red hates him, she hates him. He smells like Snow. She hates him.

Pouncing, she dodges around and snaps at his leg, dragging him to the ground as the bone splits beneath her teeth. The brunt of a soldier’s sword hits her. She turns and snaps at their torso, leaping towards him to throw her whole weight onto him and break his neck against the large rock. 

She snaps at bypasses and breathes in the air, smelling her food. _Snow_ , Snow and James. She hates them. 

The army is in chaos, Regina’s army tears through Snow’s as Snow stands before the fallen James, who’s bleeding out but not yet dead. Only crippled.

“Red!” Snow cries out. “Red, listen to me, it’s us. I don’t know what Regina’s done, but it’s us, it’s _me._ We’re your friends, Red. Please.”

Red leaps and knocks Snow to the ground, her jaw peeling open to tear at the head of Snow White, as James cries and Snow whimpers. “ _Please_.” She looks like a rabbit and Red is starving.

A low whistle pulls through the air and Red perks up, looking over to the cause. 

Her nose inhales and she smells her mistress all over the woman, but it is not her mistress. She runs over, bypassing the fighting soldier to come and circle the woman, sniffing at her armoured dress before she sits down and waits, head perked to look at Regina.

She is not her mistress, but her mistress likes Regina, she thinks.

“Snow’s mine,” Regina says, but her hand runs down Red’s head and she’s not angry. “Good girl, you can return to your mistress now.” 

Red doesn’t bark, but she makes a low noise in her throat before running off through the woods. Her mistress is waiting for her.

 


End file.
